Land of the Luddites, Part 2

My new principal is tech savvy and he wants the staff to be as well. I'm all for it. It may take some of my coworkers some time to get used to it. When the principal toured our building during the interview process, he was taken aback by the number of chalkboards in the building. My building was built in 1990, so whiteboards were not prevalent at the time.

He's trying to make us as paperless as possible. I 100% agree with this. He does everything by email, which I find to be efficient. He has required staff to check their email at least 3 times a day. Some people are balking at this, they don't like being tethered to their laptops. However, if this is the only way you will learn about what is happening, you will have to adapt. The problem with my old principal was that she would communicate everything in two forms: email and a printout of the email that appeared in everyone's mailbox. It was redundant and didn't encourage people to check their email. I like this move because it's forcing me to be more efficient. I no longer create schedules in word and email them as attachments, now I just make appointments in Microsoft Outlook (what a novel concept). The funny thing is that I used to operate this way when I worked in an office years ago.

One bright note about technology: it's making printed text obsolete in the lives of our children. A fifth grade class in my building was looking at methods of reference. It was amazing watching the teacher try to explain certain types of books only to be met with blank stares and looks of bewilderment from her students. Items that elicited bewildered looks: encyclopedias, almanacs and phone books. It was especially funny to hear the students ask questions about phone books. "They print everyone's phone number in a book?" "What if your number changes?" "How do they know about your phone number?" It was also funny to hear the discussions about encyclopedias and almanacs. With the internet, how do you even describe what they are that makes them sound relevant? It made me realize how far we've come and it also made me feel old.

BBC